Viên Linh: Điếu thi: Thủy Mộ Quan

(để tưởng nhớ những oan hồn uổng tử trên Biển Đông)

Trên Huyết Hải thuyền trôi về một chiếc
Chiều bầm đen trời rực rỡ đau thương
Thân chìm xuống băng tuyền giờ tận biệt
Sóng bạc đầu hối hả phủ trùng dương

Thấp thoáng trần gian
Mịt mù bóng đảo
Trôi về tây về bắc về đông
Trôi về đâu bốn bề thủy thảo
Về đâu kiếp đắm với thân trầm.

Hồn ơi dương thế xa dần
Hồn đi thôi nhé thủy âm là nhà
Hồn về trong cõi hà sa
Sống không trọn kiếp chết là hồi sinh.
Xong rồi một cỗi u minh
Ngựa Hồ chim Việt biến hình mà đi.

Hồn vẫn ở la đà Ðông Hải
Hồn còn trôi mê mải ngoài khơi
Hồn còn tầm tã mưa rơi
Tháng Tư máu chảy một trời sương tan.

Thân chìm đắm cõi điêu tàn nước cũ
Những lâu đài thành quách những vàng son
Những tân thư kỳ mặc những linh đường
Những rực rỡ của một thời dựng nước
Bao mắt mở bao tóc sầu dựng ngược
Bao tay cùm bao ngực vỡ hôm qua
Trong rêu xanh ngần ngật bóng sơn hà
Lướt hải phận về dưới trời cố quốc.

Nhắm hướng hôi tanh
Chia bày trận mạc
Hồn binh tàn hỗn chiến Thủy Mộ Quan.

Ðêm rơi thời hết vận tàn
Ô y cầu nhỏ người sang Lạc Hà^[1]
Thác rồi thân hóa phù sa
Mon men trở lại quê nhà mỗi đêm.

Về đâu đêm tối
Hương lửa lung linh
Những ai còn bóng
Những ai mất hình

Những ai vào kiếp phù sinh
Hóa thân hồ hải làm binh giặc trời
Khi nào hết quỉ ngoài khơi
Ta vào lục địa ta hồi cố hương.

Cùng nhau ta dựng lại nguồn
Chẻ tre đẵn gỗ vạch mương xây đình.
Ông Nghè về lại trong dinh
Tướng quân giữ ải thư sinh dưới đèn.
Từ Thức lại trở về tiên
Sĩ phu giảng huấn người hiền bình văn
Nương dâu trả lại con tằm
Ruộng xanh trả bác nông dân cần cù.
Ngựa ông trả lại thằng cu
Nhà chung trả Chúa chùa tu trả Thày
Quạt mo tao trả lại mày
Các cô yếm thắm trả bày trai tơ.

Việt Nam dựng lại sơn hà
Móng rồng năn [năm] lượt Quê Nhà phục hưng.
Ðã tỉnh sầu u thương tiếc hết
Bình minh lên nghe, hoàng hôn biết
Chim lạnh về Nam sông núi ta
Không nói không cười chân trở bước.
Nỏ thần thủa trước
Gươm bén hồ xưa
Tràn lên như nước vỡ bờ
Lạc Long lại đón Âu Cơ về thuyền.
Các con từ dưới biển lên
Từ trên núi xuống hai miền gặp nhau.

Năm nghìn năm lại bắt đầu
Chim nào tha đá người đâu vá trời^[2]

Chúng ta rời bỏ xứ người
Loài chim trốn tuyết qui hồi cố hương.

[1] Lạc Hà hay Nại Hà, là nếu ai qua cầu đó là đi vào thế giới bên kia. “Bia đề rằng Nại Hà Kiều, Kẻ nào có phước quỉ đều dắt qua.” (Nguyễn Ðình Chiểu, Dương Từ Hà Mậu).

[2] Kiếp trước của chim Tinh Vệ là công chúa con gái vua Viêm Ðế, đi chơi ngoài biển chẳng may chết đuối, nàng tức giận biến thành con chim tha đá, quyết lấp cho đầy biển, đặng không còn ai chết đuối nữa. Nàng Nữ Oa là em gái vua Phục Hy, thấy trời có những khoảng trống, nàng nghĩ rằng vòm trời bị thủng, bị vỡ, nên tha đá ngũ sắc lên vá trời, đặng vòm trời sẽ liền lại. Xin khỏi chú thích các huyền thoại khác như Từ Thức, Thằng Bờm và cái quạt mo, hay Ông Nghè, Sĩ phu. (Chú thích của V.L.)

Funeral Oration: The Gate of the Ocean Grave

By Viên Linh

(To remember those lost souls in the Eastern Sea)

On the ocean of blood floating is a boat
The evening bruised black, the heavens flaring with angst
The body at expiration is sinking into darkness
With foaming waves hurriedly the ocean was covered

Looming indistinctly somewhere on earth
a dusky shadow of an island
floating to the West, to the North, then the East
Floating where? Everywhere is covered with sea tangle
To the whereabouts where karmas descend and corpses sink

Oh, soul! The earth moves farther and farther away
Depart and take the fathomless ocean grave as home
The soul is returning to the state of multiple lives
Death is reincarnation from karma uncompleted
It’s over, nothing left but a tenebrous abode
The Ho horse, the Viet bird have transfigured into evanescence[a]

The soul is still hovering over the Eastern Sea
mesmerizingly wafting offshore
pounded on by torrential rain
April bleeds, discoloring the misty skies

The body is descending onto the ruins of the former land
adorned with the castles, fortresses of the golden times
and sophisticated, novel literary works; and sacred altars
in the glories of the nation building period
Many eyes open, zillions of sorrowful hairs stand on end
So many hands handcuffed, so many breasts impaled yesterday
Amidst the green moss appears bleary Motherland
They glide over the territorial waters to return under the sky of the country of old

Moving towards a putrid direction
for battleground positioning
The souls of the remaining defeated army were scuffling at the Gate of the Ocean Grave.

Night falls, time stops, destiny ends
Burdened with a besmirched existence[b], they made their way across Lạc Hà[1]
Their souls fading into the multiple worlds[c] after death
faltering back to their homeland every night.

Where to in the dark night
Amidst the quivering incense sticks
Those who still have a shadow
Those who have lost their appearance.

Those who entered this ephemerous life
and transformed into drifters to join the heavenly host
Whenever demons no longer reside offshore
Let’s go to the mainland and return to our country of yore.

Together we restore our life’s root:
Splitting bamboos, cutting wood, digging ditches, and building our community house.
The Laureate back to his station
The General to the frontier, the student to his study
Từ Thức back to his fairies
The scholars back to teaching, the literati to literary critique
The mulberry farms to the silkworms
The green rice fields to the industrious peasant
The magistrate’s horse back to the buffalo boy
The cloister to God, the pagoda to the bonze
The areca spathe fan I give back to thee
The lovely girls to the pretty boys.

Việt Nam is reinstating its nation
Five times kings restored Motherland
The blue devils disappear, starts the mourning dove call
Dawn listens to and Dusk knows about
the cold bird moving South, our native land
Not a single word nor laughter, steps are staken to return
to the magic crossbow of the yesteryears
the sharp sword from the lake
Rushing with the fury of a swollen river
Lạc Long welcomes Âu Cơ back to the boat
Children rising from the sea and those
Descending from the mountains to meet one another.

Five thousand years start again
Which bird carries stones, who patches the sky[2]

We are leaving the foreign soil
Like birds shunning snow to return to their homeland.

Translated by Nguyễn văn Thái

[1] Lạc Hà or Nại Hà is a bridge that leads to the Netherworld. ““Bia đề rằng Nại Hà Kiều, Kẻ nào có phước quỉ đều dắt qua.” [inscriptions on the stele say whoever lucky enough to cross Nại Kiều Bridge will be lead by the demons] By Nguyễn Đình Chiểu in Dương Từ Hà Mậu.

²The previous karma of the Tinh Vệ Bird was a princess, daughter of King Viêm Đế, who happened to drown while on a promenade by the sea. She was angry and reincarnated in a bird carying stones to fill up the sea so nobody would drown again. Lady Nữ Oa, sister of King Phục Hy, saw empty spaces in the firmament and thought the celestial dome was perforated and decided to carry five-colored stones to patch the sphere. Excuses for not providing notes on myths about Từ Thức, Bờm and the areca spathe fan, Ông Nghè, Sĩ phu (remarks by viên Linh)

NOTES BY AUTHOR

[a] “Ngựa Hồ, chim Việt biến hình mà đi” [The Ho horse, the Viet bird have transformed into evanescence] has its origin in the verse from “Cổ thi thập cửu thủ” (Nineteen famous ancient poems): “Hồ mã tê Bắc phong, Việt điểu sào Nam chi” [胡馬依北風，越鳥巢南枝: The Ho horse neighs at the Northern wind, the Viet bird nests in the South], implying lovers are missing each other. In Viên Linh’s verse, “Ngựa Hồ, chim Việt biến hình mà đi” [The Ho horse, the Viet bird have transformed into evanescence] means at death, love no longer exists; only impermanence.

[b] “ô y” (translated as burdened with a besmirched existence). In Buddhist conceptualization, “ô y” means “unpure conditions of existence”. “Ô”=dirty, besmirched; “y”= basic foundation of life. It is unlikely that the author refers to the anecdote of the “ô y” area in Jiang Ning (Nanjing today) where rich people of reputation all wore black clothes.

[c] “multiple worlds” is the translation of the analogy “hà sa” that comes from “Hằng hà sa số”: Hằng hà=the Ganges River; Sa số= number of grains of sand. Buddhism conceives of existence as composed of an infinite number of worlds that can be compared to the number grains of sand on the Ganges basin.

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Funeral Oration: The Gate of the Ocean Grave

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